The Doctor Calls
by Mountain King
Summary: The First Doctor arrives in Sunnydale just in time to stop someone from making a terrible mistake
1. The Doctor Calls

The Doctor Calls.

Authors introduction:-

This little, short story, came up basically because I wanted to write for this specific Doctor in the Buffy universe. Simple as that. I've set it between Buffy seasons 5 and 6 for reasons that will become obvious. As for Doctor Who, it's set before An Unearthly Child, so before the first ever series.

Disclaimer

I do not own any of the characters from Doctor Who or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They belong to the BBC and Mutant Enemy respectively. I'm not making any money from their use here nor do I intend to.

* * *

Dawn tossed and turned in bed before punching her pillow in frustration again. She hadn't had a good night sleep in weeks, every time she closed her eyes Dawn could almost feel the tower and empty air beneath her. Unconsciously her fingers found the scar on her stomach and Dawn heard her sister's words ringing in her ears. Telling Dawn to live for her.

Like every night since then Dawn couldn't help but feel betrayed. Live for her, she couldn't do the same? Looking at the wall her room shared with her sister's Dawn could feel it's emptiness like a open wound. It was hollow, even from here. Missing the very thing that was needed.

Her mom's room was almost worse. When Tara and Willow had offered to stay with her Dawn thought someone, anyone, with her would help. It didn't, it felt more like a betrayal. Replacing someone that could never forgotten.

It wasn't the first time she'd had these thoughts, they came every night. Every day. When the world crowed in around her and her loss came tumbling down she knew there was an easy answer. If anyone was justified in loosing her self to grief it was her.

No mother, no sister. Dawn's whole life was a lie, spun out of thin air to hide some stupid Key. There was nothing to lose because she never really had it in the first place. All she was was a burden to her friends, they had to go out of their way for her. Dawn could see it in their eyes, they weren't very good at hiding it.

Outside her open window Dawn could see out onto a clear night. throwing the bead covers off she looked up and over the town that had taken it all away from her. The full moon hung above it all in the starlit sky, shining down on everyone remorselessly. It just hovered there, dancing across the endless night. It was the same moon that had shone down when Buffy left. The same one that was hidden when mom was taken. It looked different, but it never really changed. How many deaths had it seen? What had happened under it's gaze? What would it take for that disk to blink, to ever turn away from it's course and never look back. What horror would it take to make it flinch and would it even notice that she wasn't there.

The answer was right there, before her. No. It wouldn't change. In that moment Dawn knew that no matter what she did the important things would always keep going. The gang were always going to be there, she wasn't even a dust-bunny in comparison.

It was strange. As soon as all the pieces slotted into place Dawn knew it was the easy way out. It was also for the best. She never really belonged here after all.

Dawn would never remember really leaving the house, or how she got to the junkyard. Somewhere along the way she had thrown a coat over her shoulders and a pair of shoes on her feet. Looking back later she did know that she was lucky, Glory had kicked most of the demons and vampires out of the place and word had gotten around that the Slayer had killed a Hell Goddess. It left the streets quiet, for now at least. All Dawn really could remember was the way the moon-light cast shadows on her as she climbed the tower and out onto the ledge. Across this vista a strange grinding noise was carried by the wind, but it failed to impact through the chaos of her thoughts.

All to quickly the suicidal girl was on the edge of the platform. Looking out over the closed portal where Buffy had fallen. What was on the other side? Was there really going to be angels, with wings and all that? Did balls of green energy get a heaven or did they just vanish like sounds in an empty room? Dawn stood there before the majestic sight of street lights and dark houses asking herself those questions for god knows how long.

'What are you doing?' Someone called out. Dawn practically jumped out of her skin. Turning quickly she kept her balance and saw who had sneaked up on her.

'Stay back, keep away.' She screeched. He looked old but not in a creepy bad guy way. More a grumpy old man with his longish white hair slicked back. He had a posh jacket over a checked shirt and baggy checkered pants. He held on to one of the supports with one hand and a clean looking cane with the other.

'I have no intention of going out there, risking my life, child.' he barked in a grumpy English voice. Grumpy seemed to be 'Now come back here this instant.'

Dawn gaped at him, there wasn't anything she could think to say. She'd heard of some stupid things, about to do one of them, but what level of reality was this guy on? 'Don't come any closer!'

'Whatever is a child like you doing out on this dangerous place at this time of the night?'

'I'm going to jump...' She said, saying it aloud it rang all sorts of alarm bells in her head. Looking down, far beneath her, all she saw was scrap metal straight from her nightmares.

He just looked at her for a long second. 'Go on then, what's been keeping you?' he barked and stomped his foot down. Hard.

The whole tower shook. As he stomped again bolts and lashings spun lose. 'What are you doing?' Dawn screeched at him again.

'If you want to jump I say jump. This is hardly the time to change your mind, now hurry up. I've got better things to do than watch some silly girl try to fly.'

'I'm not trying to fly!' Dawn shouted, she dropped to her knees, holding on with her fingertips. 'I'm trying to kill myself!' God, she was going to kill herself. What had she been thinking?

Dawn gasped as whatever insanity that had gripped her fled quickly. She owed this strange old man her life. 'You're taking enough time about it.' he said sharply.

'But I don't want to die.' Dawn admitted. Hot tears started rolling down her face as it twisted in anguish. 'What's wrong with me? I don't want to die. Why did I come up here?'

The stranger bent down until he could look her in the eye. 'Look at me.' he said his voice suddenly soft. 'You're very confused dear child. Now carefully craw back here.' he pushed his stick out to her. 'This will help you, just don't look down. Can you do that for me? Hum?'

Dawn nodded, feeling her way across the span an inch at a time. She was mortified, what had gotten into her. 'What was I doing, I could have...'

'You've got to calm down.' He said calmly. 'Panicking never helps. I'm here and I can help you. You just have to trust me my dear.'

'Trust the strange old man that's on the tower built by crazy people at half past two in the morning?' She snapped.

'I see you're feeling better already.' He chuckled warmly and Dawn just couldn't help but laugh with him at how silly it was. She did trust him, it wasn't just that she didn't have a choice, the real problem was she couldn't trust herself anymore.

With painful slowness she finally made it back and off the precipice. The old man took her arm at the wrist and she held on to him like a life raft. 'Good girl, come on. You don't expect an old man like me to climb down this thing all on my own now do you?' He smiled at her reassuringly.

'No.' she admitted. 'I'll help you.'

'Well come on then, I don't think this structure is all that safe.' he said. Dawn agreed with a nod and made it back to her feet.

It was a painfully slow journey down the tower. The stranger was sure on his feet but Dawn couldn't stop shaking, her knees almost buckling with every step she took. Everything was blurred by the tears in her eyes and she spent most of the time feeling her way down. In the end it was the old man that helped her down.

As they got to the bottom Dawn could barely even walk she was shaking so much. Suddenly another person was there, helping her off the tower. 'Grandfather!' They shouted, again they were English, but this time a girl. About Dawn's age, maybe a little younger. Dashing the tears from her eyes Dawn looked at her and shed away from the angry look in the other girls eyes. The old man didn't let her though and shot his granddaughter a dark look.

'Susan, help me with her.' he barked. If Dawn was in her right mind she would have been insulted by his tone. Like she was nothing more than an a dead weight. But right now that's all she was.

Susan only needed to take one look at Dawn's face. She quickly nodded and the two of them helped the distraught girl to sit down on some rubble. 'I... I almost... but he stopped me...' Dawn managed to say, shaking uncontrollably.

'What's wrong with her Grandfather?' The girl asked, somewhere between confusion and sympathy.

'Shock. I believe our young friend here has had a terrible time of it of late. Her sanity couldn't take it and snapped.'

Dawn tried to say something but her mouth just flapped up and down, teeth chattering . The stranger took off his jacket and put it over her shoulders. 'It's all right now.' He said soothingly, brushing Dawn's hair from her face. 'You're safe now and you won't try anything like that again, will you?'

Dawn shook her head fiercely.

'Good girl.' he smiled warmly sitting on the pile of scrap next to her. His finger tips still feather light on her head pushing uncombed hair out of the way. 'Now what's your name child?'

'D... Dawn.' she stammered, her shaking began to stop and for the first time in weeks she actually felt tired.

'Dawn, a nice name.' He said soothingly, not moving his fingers from her forehead. 'It's well past time you had some rest Dawn.' Then his voice wasn't coming from him, it was inside her head, whispering. She was too tired to care how, just glad that someone cared. Even a stranger. As her thoughts slowed down she got the strange feeling something or someone was in her head. Making sense of the madness. Thoughts and fears that had raced through her mind just faded away. 'Sleep now Dawn, when you awake everything will be just a little bit better.'

Before she could thank him the gentle suggestion took hold and Dawn fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

* * *

Tara was worried. She had gotten a little sleep in Willow's arms, but no where near what she wanted or needed.

It was Dawnie, the girl just wasn't handling things well. Tara could only begin to imagine what she was going through. While she might have also lost her mother at a young age losing a sister that was willing to sacrifice themselves for her well being was just a bridge too far. That wasn't even touching on the whole used to be a ball of energy thing.

Looking at all that it was hard to imagine anyone taking it well but Dawn's complete lack of emotion worried Tara. It was like, after the first couple of days, she had just shut down. No crying, fits of rage or emotion. At night she just wouldn't sleep. Tara sometimes heard her trying to cry, or even worse staring at a wall blankly.

She didn't know what to do, or how to help. Just be there for her when she needed her. Sliding her arm out from under Willow' sleeping head the young wiccan pulled a dressing gown over her shoulders. It was close to being early. Dawn was usually asleep by now but if she wasn't... Well Tara would have to see. She wasn't good at talking but she could listen.

Opening Dawn's door a crack she didn't hear any snoring. The Slayers sister might have been a lot of things but lady like wasn't one of them, some times Tara thought she could snore the house down. 'Dawnie?' She whispered as she opened the door into the empty room.

Not ten minutes later a search party had gathered in the living room. Between them there probably wasn't a single traffic law that Xander and Mr Giles hadn't broken at least three times over to get there that fast. They almost had to hold Spike back from turning the whole town upside down.

'What happened?' Mr Giles half shouted before he had even come through the front door.

'Tara got up to check on Dawn, but she wasn't in her room.'

'How'd she get out?' Xander asked. 'Did someone take her?'

'N... No.' Tara shook her head. 'We would have hea... heard them. I th... think she sneaked out.'

'Bit probably went out the window and down the wall.' Spike growled. 'Caught her doing that a while back. Thought she'd given it up.'

'She was probably just saving using it for now.' Anya shrugged as Willow came down the stairs with her arms full of spell ingredients.

'The question is why would she leave?' Mr Giles asked 'And where would she go? Spike, she feels safe in your crypt fro some reason...' They all knew she'd sneaked off to Spike's crypt more than once, but the bleached blond just shook his head.

'She wasn't there and I looked for her on the way here.' He pointed out. 'What you up to magic girl?'

Willow was arranging a map of the town on the floor with candles and power. 'It's a locator spell. I've worked out the kinks. Tara, sweetie, I'll need your help.' It didn't take long before a tiny twinkling light fluttered on the map. Hovering just over the junkyard.

No one had said it was a race. They didn't have to. Spike was out of the door before the spell was complete, Xander and Giles waited long enough for the two witches to get to their feet before dragging them to the Englishman's sports car.

The junkyard was the same. After Glory's minions had taken it over the place had been abandoned. Sooner or later someone might try to take it over, but for now it was an empty wreck. Full of bad memories and broken hearts. Buffy was Tara's closest friend, losing her had been almost too painful.

Willow was more than that, she was a lover and part of her but Buffy had become a genuine friend. Not just Buffy but all the Scoobies were her friends, all because of Willow. She had been the door and given her everything she ever needed. Buffy's death had hurt. It had hurt more than Tara had expected.

Even now the place just held too many bad memories. While the others jumped out of the bright red car Tara hung back. As much as she wanted to help Dawnie she couldn't go back in there. Then something caught her eye, or didn't.

It was strange, she was trying to look elsewhere. Anywhere that wouldn't remind her of Buffy's broken body, the terrible look of pain on Dawn's face, Spike's tears of loss, but like a magnet facing the wrong way her eyes kept wandering back there. Like something was pushing her attention back, away from itself. What ever it was it was just off to one side. If she concentrated she could force her self to look at it.

Then she saw them. Two people hanging around just out side the junkyard, hidden in the terrible shadow of the tower.

One was an old man and the other a young girl. At least that's what the looked like on the outside. Tara, however, could see so much more. Their auras shone like suns, the girl's was bright and innocent. Full of untapped depths and power.

Tara crept closer to them, they were watching Willow and the gang gather around Dawn. At a glance Tara could tell the surviving Summers girl was fast asleep as the others hovered around her.

Looking back at the strangers Tara found herself looking directly in the eyes of the older man. It was something she would never forget. In that instant she saw it all, she felt it. The world beneath her feet spinning like some giant carrousel, the sun burning so bright and flying aimlessly though space. Tiny webs of coincidence and hope threading through everything. Guiding it and woven into a vast tapestry. A tapestry that had a clear beginning and an end.

He could see the threads and read the tapestry at a glance. In that brief moment so could Tara. While the girl was untapped but strong he was more. He was fully realised and knew how to use it. Whatever it was. Tara could feel it in her soul as it seemed to shrivel in her heart.

Falling to her knees Tara needed something, anything, to hold onto. To be reassured that something was eternal. She was drowning in the tapestry, searching for the dry land of certainty. Finally he broke the eye contact, smiling sadly to her. Tara couldn't hear anything over the sound of her heart beating like a drum, just watch as the man put a restraining hand on the girl, stopping her from coming closer.

A shake of his head and a quiet word and they were gone. They were just gone. Finding her feet Tara could feel that strange reverse magnetic pull forcing her to look away, only stronger. Only now she knew it was coming from something there, if she only focused hard enough she could see it. Like something coming into focus Tara could, at last, see it.

The strange thing was it was only a blue box. It had a light on top and was a lot like a wardrobe. Just sitting there next to where the two strangers had been. As she looked at it the light on top began to pulse, picking up a slow rhythm. As the light grew brighter the air began to whisper with the sound of grinding gears. Tara stared in open mouth shock as the box began to disappear.

It wasn't the trick that stopped her from seeing it this time, the box faded in and out of existence. Out of time with the sound and light until it was gone, leaving faint echoes behind.

* * *

Dawn woke up. Not just that she woke up refreshed, her tear stained pillow was dry for the first morning she could remember. Sitting up Dawn saw her room brightly lit by the midmorning sun and almost cringed. It was so dark and depressing, almost as if she'd been revelling in the sadness. No wonder she had almost jumped.

Blinking hard Dawn had to grip the sides of her mattress as the memories of the last night came back. 'God, what did I almost do?'

'That's what we'd all like to know.' Giles said. Dawn hadn't seen the Watcher hovering at her door.

Dawn gaped at him, trying to think of a reason. 'I... I must have gone crazy. I... I almost jumped.'

'You what?' he practically jumped into the room. 'What were you doing out there Dawn?'

He was concerned, so was Dawn. 'I couldn't take it and I thought there was only one thing I could have done...' She held her head. That sort of thinking wasn't just wrong, it had huge neon lights and it's own Broadway show of wrongness.

'Dawn.' Giles swallowed. 'I want you to listen to me. Okay? ...'

Xander shared a look with Willow, but his best bud had already ran. The two of them were behind Giles and listening to Dawn as soon as she woke up.

When the Dawn patrol admitted she was going to kill herself Willow had just ran. Following her downstairs and into the kitchen Xander grabbed her and pulled his longest and bestest friend in for a massive hug.

'We should have seen it.' Willow said into his chest. 'We were so hurt we never thought to help Dawn.'

'Yes we did, she didn't want it and we didn't push.' Xander corrected pulling back.

Willow nodded and then looked up at him, resolve face at full force. 'We have to do something.' She said dangerously.

'What can we do?' Xander asked, more than a little worried. When Willow got like this there was no arguing with her.

'We can bring her back.'

End The Doctor Calls


	2. The Doctor Gambles

The Doctor's Gamble

Authors note

Originally "The Doctor Calls" was a one shot, but a review over on Twisting the Hellmouth sparked off a few ideas that have been germinating in the back of my mind for awhile. The end result is this little sequel which is a little bit evil, but the plan is to shed some light on to Tara's Death. Not undo it so much as add an extra dimension to it.

Disclaimer

I do not own any of the characters used. Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Doctor Who are owned by Mutant Enemy Inc. and The BBC respectively. I've just put them together into one story and filled in the gaps.

* * *

The Doctor poked his head out of the TARDIS. This looked like the place, more than that he could feel it. Tapping his umbrella he strode out and looked around. They'd landed just off what looked like the main street, in a well lit alley way. Perfect, he wasn't going to be here long, but there was no sense in taking chances. Especially not here and not now.

'Where are we professor?' Ace asked following him out. She pulled off her oversized jacket and threw it over her shoulder. 'And why is it so hot?'

'We're in California, about twenty years into your future. Give or take.' He told her. She was right it was hot. What was it with humans picking such ridiculous climates to thrive in. The challenge of course, he reminded himself.

'Well wicked!' She exclaimed and threw her jacket back into the TARDIS. He had to admit she had a point, still he didn't feel the heat like she did and could adapt. 'Professor, I know it's a nice change but what are we doing here?'

'There is something I've got to finish. We won't be here long. Fortunately.' He said ominously. It was bait, she'd want to know and he would tell her. They both knew it but she had to ask.

'Why is it good we won't be here long?' She asked the right question. She didn't really need to know why they were here.

Seeing an empty bench the Doctor nodded over to it and closed the TARDIS door. 'Remember what I told you about Alternate Realities?' Ace tensed, their trip to the dimension of the Cheetah World was only a few weeks earlier. So far the only characteristics she had retained was slightly more acute vision at night and a pronounced grace to her movements. They both sat down as he left the new question hanging.

'Well,' she said eventually. 'There's like infinite different realities. Some are just like ours, but with little differences and some are like that cat place. Well evil.'

'Go on.' He prodded gently.

Ace was a little more confident now she was caught up in the science of it all. 'Okay, there's like these barriers between them. Holding them all separate and between there's this vast nothing, but they aren't solid. The barriers. Sometimes there's these cracks and stuff can slide through.'

'Exactly, very good Ace.' The Doctor congratulated her by tapping her nose. 'When these cracks are pulled apart you get rips. Vast gaping wounds in the both realities where both try to coexist. Like the cheetah world some have different rules, both sets of rules try to transpose themselves and the worlds would start to merge.' Ace looked at him horrified, as well she should. That sort of merging would shatter a world, but he wasn't finished. 'There are dimensions worse than that of the Cheetahs. There the rules are vastly different. What you could call the heavens and hells.'

'Mind boggling.' Ace gasped. 'You mean heaven and hell are real?'

'In a sense.' He gave her a moment to let that sink in. 'Now we're here because this place is something else.'

'Something else, you mean something worse?'

'I didn't say worse, I said else.' He corrected her. 'You see when two or more cracks meet they don't rip, they become a crossroads. A sort of meeting place where almost all the dimensions meet. This place is one of those crossroads and some very... strange things can happen here.'

Ace frowned at him and he smiled 'Here, let me show you.' He pulled a coin out of his top pocket and gave it her. 'Flip it and just let it fall.'

Just as she was about to do as she was told he held up a finger. 'Heads.' he told her and she flipped it.

The coin landed heads. Ace flipped it again and again, all three times the Doctor guessed it before she had even started. 'I know you can do that.' she smiled at him as she picked the coin up again.

'Ahh but can I do this, edge.'

'What?' she blinked at him, coin already in the air.

'Edge.' he said again and watched the coin arc into the air and land on the ground. Edge first.

'Okay, how'd you do that?' Ace asked intently, picking up the coin and inspecting it.

'Coincidence.' He said simply. 'That crossroads I told you about generates all sorts of energy. We just tapped into a small part of it. That energy sends waves of coincidence out like a lighthouse. A warning to some, invitation to others.'

Ace caught the tone of his voice instantly. 'Who does it invite?'

'Darkness. Things that slip though the wrong cracks. The crossroads we are on sinks through the realities like a stain, plumbing the depths of the blackest evil. Evil unnamed, dredged from the blackest pits.'

'Worse than even Fenric?' Ace said, terrified.

The Doctor winced. 'He's down there, somewhere. Like a spider sat in the web. Trapped on the wrong side of death itself.' Ace went pail. Fenric, an evil from the dawn of the universe. The Doctor had destroyed it's mortal form, killing it, but death was only a barrier for one of it's power. 'It's trapped. Fenric, or whatever name Evil choses to go by, can not harm us or any other living soul. Now that it's nothing more than a shadow, it might be able to manifest illusions for brief periods, but nothing more.' At least he hoped not.

'So why aren't we leaving?' Ace asked seriously. The Doctor couldn't blame her. Then she had an idea. 'Shouldn't we, I don't know, do something about this crossroads thing?'

'No, the energy has to go somewhere. Places like this are like a safety valve. Without them the pressure of all those things slipping between the cracks would build. Eventually this world would boil into the Void.' The Doctor told her. 'Closing this place must only be an act of last resort.'

The Doctor let it all sink in. What he didn't mention was that Earth had one of the largest concentrations of these crossroads in the universe. Drawing coincidence, and all that went with it, to this supposedly insignificant planet. It was also what kept him bouncing back here for all these years.

'So what do you want me to do?' Ace asked. 'I mean what are we doing here if not to close this thing?'

'There is someone I have to meet.' He said looking away. 'She's in the Coffee Shop behind us.'

Ace turned around. 'Oh, are they coming with us?' There was a catch in her voice, she probably thought she was going to be replaced.

The Doctor shook his head. 'No. As much as I want to help I can't change her destiny. You see, for me, it has already happened.' With a deep breath the Doctor reached into another pocket. 'Think of it as a holiday Ace. I'll see you in the TARDIS in about an hour.'

'What?' Ace blinked, not following the conversation.

'Ace.' he said with authority. Couldn't she understand he was trying to help her. Of course not even if she knew the stakes she would try to help. He knew the stakes and knew why he the could not help. 'Listen to me this time. It's important.'

'Alright Professor.' Thankfully she knew better than to argue and got up. 'An hour, back at the TARDIS.'

'It doesn't have to be an hour, just be back before dark.' Ace smiled at his warning before it sunk in.

'Sure thing.' she nodded and left.

With a practised sigh the Doctor pulled his hand out of his pocket and held it out. Small black bag hanging by it's drawstring. 'Ace.' he reminded her.

He had every faith the young woman could get what she wanted in other, more creative, ways but he didn't want a fuss.

'Oh, thanks professor.' She smiled and took the money bag.

Taking up his umbrella and standing up the Doctor took a calming breath as she left. The task ahead of him was moderately unpleasant.

Simply surviving American coffee might even be preferable.

* * *

Tara held her coffee in both hands, letting it's warmth seep through her fingers. Willow, it always came back to her. Tara wasn't failing at college but there was no life in her anymore. She could tell it was because of her.

It was why she kept on turning up at the house, as much as she cared for Dawnie and as good a friend Buffy was Willow was why she wanted to be there. She could forgive her, the magic was too much for anyone. Willow needed help with her addiction, Tara left to help her see that. Now, finally, she could. But should she go back? Would Willow just fall into bad habits again, would she have to leave again?

It was those questions that kept Tara's eyes fixed on the coffee cup, lost in thought. She was startled out of her self reflection by a polite cough. 'Well hello there.'

Tara blinked, nobody talked to her. It wasn't the first time she had just sat there, Mind racing until her drink went cold. Looking up she felt her jaw drop. The man standing next to her was so out of place she almost thought she was dreaming. He wore a cream coloured jacket with a red handled umbrella tucked in it's top pocket. Under that he had a dark brown pullover over a white shirt. He raised his hat with a practised smile before saying:- 'Would you mind if I sat here?' His accent was almost Scottish, but with an Englishman's crispness. The result was a strange mangling of his R's that sent shivers up her spine.

'W...Who, w...why?' she stammered and looked around. They weren't alone, but there were still a lot of chairs left for him to sit at.

'You looked like someone with a problem. You're not here for the coffee so you must want someone too talk too.' He said pointedly. 'Or are you just here to listen?'

'L... Listen, to what.'

'Me.' He said, sitting down and taking off his hat. 'Because I have something to tell you, Tara Maclay.' The way he pronounce her name was terrifying.

Talking to strangers was always dangerous, in Sunnydale it was suicide. 'How, how do you know who I am?' Tara asked sitting back. It was daylight and everyone in the Coffee Shop could see them. Not even the boldest Demon would attack here.

'Listen to me very carefully, if you don't everyone you care about will be utterly destroyed in the most painful ways you can imagine. In two days your friend, Willow, will be shot.'

'S... Shot?' Tara blanched, her question forgotten.

'Her death will be irreversible. Then, in a years time, she will be unable to stop a great evil from rising, without her help neither will Ms Summers.'

Tara could feel her world crumbling. There was something in his voice, a sort of earnest honesty. She couldn't help but know he was telling her the truth. 'I have to s... save...'

He held a hand up, stopping her. 'You can't, not without a terrible cost.' Again Tara felt something cold in the pit of her stomach. She recognised the expression on the strangers face.

It was regret.

'Someone must die,' He told her. 'If you want to save your friend's life you have to sacrifice your own. Nothing less will re-strike the balance.'

Tara stared at him, she couldn't understand why anyone must die. Then it hit her. It was balance, the price of Buffy's life. The balance must be addressed. But there was more to it than that and she said as much to him.

'All to true my dear. I wish I was wrong, however that which is coming knows what I do. It wants Willow dead, the Slayer weakened. Your sacrifice will cause great pain, out of that tragedy will come the strength needed to win.'

'I'm... I'm going to save the world?' This was all coming too fast for Tara. Ideas and fears just coming out of nowhere.

'In a manner of speaking. Then again the same could be said of everyone you know. You all sacrifice so much. You could always leave.'

'What, what?' The sudden right turn in the conversation left her stunned.

'You see that's the great quandary of heroes isn't it. We never even think about do we? Just blunder from disaster to disaster, never worrying about the price to ourselves or to those closest to us. Just helping those we'll never meet. Why is that I wonder?'

Tara thought about that herself, 'I don't know. Why do you ask?'

'Because you were about to say you don't have a choice. You do, the balance might be struck another way. All you have to do is leave.' he stared into the distance. Tara looked at him. Really and for the first time since he sat down.

It had been months since she'd seen anything like him, but she remembered. A thing of dreams and nightmares. So much power, standing like a light house preceding bad weather. Shining and blinding.

For that moment Tara saw time and space spinning and her place in it. It's power and majesty and her, tiny but not unnoticed in the weave of the tapestry. Nothing and everything at the same time, a drop in the ocean and the ocean in a single tear. 'I... I... I...' she stammered.

He looked at her, frowning. 'Ahh I see.' he nodded with a sad smile. 'You see it don't you.' Tara nodded. Not trusting herself to speak. 'Then I guess there is nothing more to say.' He finished his coffee with a wince.

Tara knew that he had been telling the truth. If she didn't do something Willow would die and the world was doomed. 'I'll do it.' She said. Tears coming to her eyes. 'I'll do it. I might have a choice but it would be the wrong one. Remember me, won't you?'

She never would understand why she asked him. It wasn't for fame or recognition. Something else, something simple but beyond reach. Standing up the stranger put his hat back on and said one word:- 'Always.' Then he left.

* * *

Ace found the Doctor sitting in the TARDIS. All the lights were of and he just sat there. A sort of glow was coming from the console in the middle of the room. Giving just enough to see with.

Her first thought was that there was something wrong with the TARDIS, then she saw the look on the Doctor's face. 'Professor! What's wrong?' She was at his side. The Doctor had been forced to do some terrible things in the time she'd known him. It was easy to forget he didn't like them anymore than she did.

He didn't answer, just looked into the distance like he was uniting a knot with his mind. 'Professor?' Ace shook him, he was never like this. 'Professor?'

Finally he blinked and looked at her. 'Ahh you're back.' he tried to smile but something stopped him. Giving up he tapped her on the nose. 'We better get going. There's a few other things we've got to get done.' With a burst of speed he jumped to his feet and leaped to the controls.

'Professor, what's wrong? This wasn't just another trip was it. Something happened, tell me.'

With a final taping of a button the lights came back on and he stopped. Looking up from the column in the middle as it softly rose and fell. 'Ace, take a seat and I'll tell you a story about one of the most remarkable people I've ever met.'

* * *

Tara was still awake, it was late at night and her last day was fast approaching but the young wiccan didn't mind. Everything had fell into place for one glorious instant. Her life, everything before and what was to come led to this. For the first time she felt whole, no fear of the future no worries. She was like a bird in flight, soaring high above worry and concern.

It was a feeling she never wanted to end. But it must. Even now, lying in bed with Willow, her warm breath softly sighing above her heart, couldn't last forever. It didn't have to. Just though tomorrow.

One perfect day, a perfect memory. Tara was lucky, so many times she had asked for it and here her dream was. Quiet, peaceful and whole. A family that loved her that she could love and protect with her last breath. No doubt just a simple path.

This was it and she didn't care, Willow was happy and all was right in the world. Smiling contentedly Tara let her eyes drift shut and sleep take her.

End The Doctor's Gamble


	3. The Doctor Talks

The Doctor Talks

Authors Introduction  
After The Doctor's Gamble was nominated for a Twisting the Hellmouth Award (best Dr Who or Torchwood crossover) I decided to write another on in the series. After the voting was done I would post it and then thank everyone who voted.

Well as far as I can tell it didn't even make it past the first round of voting, not that I'm surprised, but being nominated was great for my ego! So anyone who's reading this and did vote, thanks and whoever nominated me thanks again!

Now on with the story, I'm setting this after Becoming, the season 2 final and before Anne, the start of season 3.

Disclaimer  
I do not own any of the characters used in this work. Buffy and Doctor Who belong to 20 century Fox and the BBC respectively.

* * *

Feeling dejected and alone Buffy, for the first time since getting off the bus, sat down. As best as she could tell she was in a public park, still somewhere in LA, but she had no idea where. There was a half rusted slide and a set of swings off to one side and a small patch of something that would have been grass if it was still growing.

She'd left Sunnydale with as much money as she could find and a bag full of clothes, one stake and her stuffed pig, Mr Gordo. There was nothing left for her on the Hellmouth. Her mother had thrown her out of the house, she'd been expelled from school and almost to top it off she'd had to send the man she loved into hell to save a world that rejected her.

She'd left, just packed up and gone. Leaving her friends, her family, behind she ran and didn't want to look back. With no place to stay or to go she had simply decided to get lost, just vanish. Not caring where she ended up.

Where she ended up was Los Angeles, wandering down random streets looking for something, almost anything, to take her mind of Angel, her mother and Vampires in general. Now in an abandoned street park, with the only light cast by the moon and the two remaining street lights she knew just how stupid that was. She wanted nothing more than to be home, to pull her bed covers over her head and let the world pass by.

But she couldn't. She didn't have a bed, she didn't even have a roof. She'd given up everything, had it pulled from her, all to save a world of people she didn't know. Dashing tears from her eyes with the back of her hand Buffy felt like screaming at the injustice of it all, if only to feel something.

'Here.' someone said, offering a handkerchief. Buffy had been so focused on feeling sorry for herself she didn't even know anyone else was there.

Startled, she looked up to see who it was. The strange man looked completely out of place, Buffy couldn't think of anywhere he would fit in. He wore a black velvet jacket, turned up collar on a white shirt and a brown scarf. 'Urm, thanks.' She said carefully and tried to wipe away her tears.

'Mind if I sit down?' he asked. 'I've been walking all day and it's tiring at my age.' He didn't look that old, about forty, but there was something about the way he said it. Both as a joke and serious that caught the former Slayer out.

Before she could think of a polite way to get rid of him he sat down at the far end of the bench and looked up into the cloudless night and smiled. Catching her look his grin softened. 'Sorry, a sky like that reminds my why I do what I do.'

'What's that?' she asked before she could stop herself.

'I travel' he admitted cryptically. 'Here, there, everywhere.'

'Everywhere?' Buffy asked with a frown

'Anywhere.' he said, a note of wonder in his voice. 'But that's me. What are you doing here?'

Buffy shrugged. 'Just traveling myself.' She lied quickly. He gave her a long look back, that told her he hadn't bought it.

After a moment he seemed to see right through her, right down into her soul. Finally, almost mercifully he sighed. 'Always nice to meet a fellow traveller.' he said sarcastically. 'Know where you're going yet?'

'No.' She admitted.

'And that's not the point is it? You just want to be far away from here, I'm betting far away from anywhere.'

Buffy frowned at him this was all too easy. 'Who are you, what do you want?'

His face hardened into something like granite. 'Two very dangerous questions, I wouldn't suggest asking either again.' He growled before softening his tone. 'I'm here to help. That's what I do, I travel and help people and right now I'm trying to help you.'

Buffy sat back, quickly hiding the fact she had pulled her emergency stake from the side pocket of her bag. 'Help me, why do you think I need help?'

'Because you're a young woman, lost in Los Angeles and you're crying alone in an empty park.' He said seriously. 'Something's wrong and you can't talk to your friends about it, so maybe a stranger can help where a friend can't.'

Buffy felt her knuckles whiten around the stake, the wood creaking in her grip. 'I don't think you can. No one can.'

'I've ran away enough times myself to know that feeling. Believe me, I can.' he admitted with that wry grin of his.

Buffy didn't like the way he just casually passed of the life being destroyed as something that happened everyday. 'This where you tell me I can't run away from my problems?' She snarked at him, guessing he was some social worker that prowled the night, looking for hard luck cases.

This time he laughed. 'Of course you can run away from your problems. Leave them far behind you if you want. It won't do any good of course, they'll still be there when you get back and sometimes they grow when your not looking.'

Buffy felt something cold run down her spine. He was right, but that didn't change things. 'What are you, some sort of charity worker?' she confronted him.

He shook his head. 'I'm someone offering advice. As I see it you have three options; the first is to turn back, go home if you can and sort out your problems. Another is to keep running, pull the world around over your head and keep digging.

'And last?' She asked

'Stay here, you're far enough away now. Try and build a new life for yourself and forget your past as if it never happened.'

Buffy hadn't even thought that far ahead, and he'd guessed that. 'So what, I run away from myself and that's it? Become someone else?'

'If you want.' He pointed out. 'It won't solve anything though, but it's a useful stop gap.'

'What if it can't be solved?' she asked him, unable to hid the catch in her voice. 'What if…'

'Trust me, I'm a lot older than you and I've seen a lot more. Anything can be solved if you're willing to try.'

'Trust you?' she asked scornfully.

'Yes, trust me and you don't need the stake.' He nodded to her still hidden hand. 'I'm not a Vampire.'

She tried not to show how rattled he made her, she pulled the stake out of her bag and kept it ready 'How can I be sure?'

'Because.'

She waited but he didn't say anything else. 'Nice answer.' she eventually snarked back.

'I liked it.' He shrugged. 'So what are you going to do?'

Buffy thought for a moment, 'How about I just keep running? That whole pull the world around my head sounds good.'

'Like an ostrich?'

'A what?'

'An ostrich?' He blinked. 'It's a big bird, supposedly sticks it's head in the sand to hide.'

'Oh. ' Buffy frowned. 'That's stupid.'

'So is hiding.'

Buffy winced, she'd fallen right into that one. It was time to turn the tables on this stranger. 'Alright then, you're going to give me advice. Advise.'

'Stay here. Make a life for yourself here, in the city. For a little while atlas.' He said simply. 'When you're ready, when you know what you want and can make a decision you won't regret later, decide and you won't regret it. Listen to me Buffy, you can keep running now and end up dead or worse. Directionless and alone. Or you can stay here. Work things out and move on with a clear conscience. Sunnydale will always be there, well more or less, if you ever need to return.'

'How do you know my name?' Buffy asked,Slowly rising to her feet, stake held close and ready for a fight. He was English, but too relaxed to be a Watcher and he didn't sound like a social worker. If anything he sounded honest, and that scared her more than anything she thought could. Somehow he knew who, and what she was and from the look of sympathy almost certainly knew what had happened.

'As I told you, I've travelled, I've seen and heard a lot and I've heard stories of the Vampire Slayer.' He stood up, ignoring the stake and looking her dead in the eye. 'Listen to me and don't do anything rash. Stay here, in Los Angeles, until you have somewhere better to go.'

'Like where?' She asked, lowering the stake but still on guard for some trick.

He smirked 'You'll know.' It was then she felt it, something shifted subtly in his expression and the world lurched beneath her. For a fraction of a moment Buffy knew she was looking at someone other than human. Beyond anything and anyone she had ever seen before, in that instant all she could do was gape as the full weight of whatever he was hit her and with that he turned away.

'Who, who are you?' Buffy asked in a quiet voice.

He stopped, somehow hearing her whisper and she instantly bit her lip. In the quiet night even the distant cars suddenly sounded muted. Then he turned and walked back. 'Give me you're hand.'

'What?'

'You asked, so I'm going to show you. Give me your hand.'

Almost like plunging it into fire Buffy held her hand out. She had no idea what she had just felt from him but whatever it was was powerful. When he took her hand in his it felt cold, not demon or vampire cold, but still cool. Like the night air. 'Now close your eyes.'

As she did Buffy felt a falling feeling in her gut, like she was on a fast lift or speeding along a winding road. Only she wasn't moving, and then, at the same time, she was. She could feel the earth beneath her feet rolling, ever spinning around a distant ball of fire. Buffy knew in that instant she was falling through space, tumbling though the endless night sky. Clinging, like everyone else, helplessly to the surface of the world. A wafer thin sliver the only thing keeping any of them alive.

Lost in that sea of forever, she was just a pin prick. Earth, the moon, the sun and even the stars. Tiny pinpricks, all the same and all different. Then, as a final blow, there was something else. A thread strung between those almost invisible dots. weaving between them in pattens so complex she couldn't begin to understand them.

Stumbling back from that terrible clarity she opened her eyes, only to find herself alone. in the park, the sun rising into the night sky. In her hand there was a small orange sweet that looked like a person and somewhere in the distance the slow grinding of machinery.

* * *

The party had been a disaster, long before the zombies and the demon mask. Buffy couldn't blame her friends though, they were freaked and they had every right to be. She'd just up and left them to guard the hellmouth.

It was her responsibility, she tried changing that by becoming Anne, but all that did was buy her some time to sort things out.

After the guys' left, along with promises to meet up tomorrow as soon as they could, Buffy's mother had given her a hug and suggested that they call it a night. With the emotional roller coaster resting, for now, and the Zombies driving Sunnydale's demon population underground an early night sounded like a good idea.

Closing her bedroom door Buffy turned and froze. Sitting on the foot of her bed was a small brown paper bag, it's corners twisted shut, and a folded piece of paper. on the paper someone had written five words and signed off with a question mark. 'You made the right choice' Buffy said, reading it aloud. Opening the bag she found that it was full of the same gummy sweets the stranger had given her three months before.

End The Doctor Talks

Authors postscript

Oh incase you didn't realise, it was the Eighth Doctor talking to Buffy. Just thought I'd clear that one up incase you didn't recognise him .


End file.
